Monday, March 14, 2011

Chemo Round #3

Not looking forward to more Chemo

After the second round of Chemo it took Laura a few weeks to fully recover. This past week however was one of her best in a long time. She has been acting "normal" -- running, playing, and acting like a dog much younger than her age. I almost dreaded taking her in for her scheduled 3rd chemo session, but I knew it had to be done.

When I dropped Laura off this morning, I discussed with Dr. B my desire to give her a smaller dosage as he did during the first session so she wouldn't get so sick. He concurred.

Laura is starting to know the routine and definitely didn't want to stay with Dr. B this morning. She actually tried dragging me out the door several times, as if saying, "please don't leave me daddy!". I walked her back to the kennel area and said goodbye. She started yelping and crying, but we both knew she had to stay.

Good Blood Work!

As usual, she had to have complete blood work done before the chemo could be administered to make sure she was healthy enough. Her blood work again looked great. It was normal. Let the chemo begin to drip!

I picked Laura up after work and Dr. B gave her some more Reglan (anti-nausea medicine) as a preventative measure since she got so sick the last time. We went home and Laura was starving. She immediately begged me for her homemade dinner and I obliged. She woofed it down in under a minute. So far, so good with Chemo Round #3.

My dog, Suki (15), was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma January 18th (3 days before my husband had major surgery for colorectal cancer). She has a large splenic tumour.

Suki has been an exceedingly healthy dog since I found her at the age of 18 months, starving alongside a highway. Right before I took her to the vet, she had started vomiting undigested food, 8 hours after eating. The vet and I both initially thought she had pancreatitis.

I decided against any surgery (perhaps if she were young but I will not put her through the infections etc., that often accompany losing a spleen) especially since there was no doubt that, with a tumour that size, the cancer would have spread.

I also said no to chemo (after much research when my mom had lymphoma and now with my husband-- and finding that chemo for humans has a 2.1% cure rate and little evidence that it helps beyond that-- but certainly causes harm)I could see no point.

I'm not saying it isn't right for you and Laura-- but it isn't for us.

We thought, since Suki was so ill, that she'd be dead within a week or two. The vet gave her 2 months, tops. But she rallied on her own, has had one more brief spell with nausea, and is back to her bouncy, young-acting self, 9.5 weeks later. I can't help but wonder if, had we done the protocol, if they would be telling us that's why she is doing so well.

A good friend also has a dog with hemangiosarcoma-- also doing really well with no treatment and has gone way past the time they said he had left.

However, I have no illusions and every time Suki looks back quizically at her stomach, I wonder....

My other dog is 14; we lost a 19 year old last year (all larger dogs too) -- one horse is 26 and one cat 15-- sigh.... Since all were rescues, having them all be old at the same time sure wasn't planned!

One more thought-- many people asked me when I was going to put my dog out of her misery. I often wonder whose misery we are actually talking about-- the dog, or the person watching. I said, "I'll know. She'll tell me or she will simply die on her own." We are all so afraid of death and losing control that we often put it onto animals-- who are much better at it all that than we.